Reception
by Lupin the 14th
Summary: It's Doctor Agasa's wedding reception, and Shinichi's bringing a date. Problem is, she isn't Ran. My first story, so please R&R. Might be a bit OCC. Shin/Ran
1. Chapter 1

_Hey, this is Lupin the 14th! This is my first story, so please review! I obviously don't own Detective Conan, since this is a FAN FICTION site. _

The wedding reception was, as receptions go, a bit odd. First off, fewer people came to the reception than to the actual wedding. But mainly, it was unusual due to the fact that it was held almost a month after the wedding itself.

For this strange occurrence we may lay blame on a good friend of the groom's who had been unable to attend the wedding. Yup, Kudo Shinichi had epically failed to show up at Professor Agasa's wedding. Not that the good professor minded that much, seeing as Shinichi's, er...situation was the was the way it was, but he had promised to make it to the reception. The thing that bothered him was that Shinichi had mentioned that he would be bringing someone with him. And Mouri Ran had replied separately.

Agasa was concerned about Shinichi. He had disappeared, as well as his infamous alias Conan, a week before the wedding. Haibara had vanished as well. There had been no news of the two of them until three days ago, when they simultaneously replied to the invitations via e-mail. Both of them were bringing 'plus ones'.

Agasa had decided against telling Ran that Shinichi was coming. If Shinichi wanted the girl to know, he would've told her. It was probably meant to be a surprise for her anyway. But still… Agasa Hiroshi was uneasy about the whole business. It was shaping up to be an interesting weekend.

Mouri Ran arrived at Ryestin Hall an hour before the start of the reception. She was looking forward to seeing Heiji and Kazuha, who would be coming despite the fact that they weren't very close to the Agasas. Besides, she really liked Fusae, the professor's wife, and wanted a chance to talk to her before she got mobbed by other guests and fans. She was, after all, a famous purse designer.

But deep down, Ran knew it was because she hoped Shinichi would be there. Shinichi, who had not been at the wedding of one of his parents' best friends. Shinichi, who hadn't talked to her in a month. Shinichi, who had broken her heart so many times. She missed him even more now that Conan had moved back to the States. Ran had never truly abandoned the fantasy that Conan was Shinichi. She had come up with all sorts of crazy theories trying to justify the idea. Maybe he had been shrunken after an alien abduction. Maybe he had accidentally drunk one of Agasa's weird potions and pretended to be Conan because he was too embarrassed to admit it. Or maybe he was poisoned by a secret crime ring who he hid from as Conan when he didn't die. Or perhaps he was just an ordinary kid who looked a little too much like little Shinichi for his own good.

Ran sighed. She needed to wake up and smell the coffee. Conan was gone, and he certainly wasn't Shinichi, because people don't just randomly shrink.

_Or do they?_ A little voice in the back of her head whispered. She told it to shut up.

"Hey, you'd better hurry up or we'll be late!" a young woman with long curly black hair shouted at a teenage boy. He was fixing his tie in the mirror while trying to tame his gravity defying-mane into something semi-presentable. The boy was actually more of a young man, probably around 17 or 18 years old. His female companion's face appeared beside his own in the mirror.

"Give up on your hair. Yes, you still look like a rooster, but there's nothing you can do about it. We've already tried everything. Now, come on, we'll be late to the wedding." She said this all very quickly, but her friend understood.

"Wedding reception." He corrected.

"Same thing." She snorted. Kudo Shinichi smiled. He had grown accustomed to her flippant way of speech.

"What about Hai and Risu?"

"They'll be coming later. We're leaving early so we don't get lost."

"You mean so we aren't late when we do get lost…"

Shinichi's friend blushed, making her look very pretty indeed. "Oh, shut up." He laughed at her embarrassment as they walked out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

_Yay! Chapter 2 is up! Thanks so much to YouthfulLily, who is my only reviewer so far...Glares at all the non-reviewers_

_So, yeah, I don't own Detective Conan or else it would have ended about 500 chapters ago._

Toyama Kazuha(A/N: Is that how you spell her last name?) was worried about Ran. She was such a sweet girl, and was also drop-dead gorgeous. But she was still stuck on Kudo Shinichi. That jerk Kudo, as Kazuha thought of him. All he had ever done was hurt Ran, yet she remained smitten with him. Not that Kazuha didn't like the guy, quite the opposite, she and Sonoko both thought he was an ideal hubby for Ran. But Ran's happiness came first and she could see no happy future with Kudo in it.

"Kazuha?" She snapped out of her daydream. "You okay? Ya look kind of out of it."

Hattori Heiji's face was inches from her own as he tried to catch her attention. A furiously red blush crept up her cheeks, which earned her more concern from her boyfriend.

"Yer face's all red, too. Ya sure yer not sick or something?"

"I'm fine!" she squeaked, quickly looking away. And that was when she saw them.

A boy who was definitely Kudo Shinichi walking arm in arm with a girl who was most certainly not Mouri Ran. Kazuha's heart crashed to the bottom of her shoes, along with any slight hopes of healing Ran's broken heart. Even though she wanted so badly to look away, she stared on, intently memorizing the evil woman's face.

She was older than Kudo, probably around 27 or 28. Cougar, Kazuha thought with disdain. She was also incredibly pretty. Her black curls bounced cheerfully on her shoulders, only a shade darker than her eyes, which had just closed as she laughed at something Kudo said. That jerk Kudo. Kazuha couldn't stand anymore. She averted her eyes, glaring at the concrete beneath her feet as if it had offended her.

Once she and Heiji arrived at the reception, Kazuha sought out Sonoko.

"Hey, Zuha? Can this wait, 'cause I was just talking to Ms. Kihoshita, I mean, Mrs. Agasa. She really famous you know, and… Hey, what's wrong?" Tears had began to form in the corner of Kazuha's eyes as she explained what she saw to Sonoko. When she had finished, her friend was furious.

"That jackass! How could he do that to Ran! I'll kill him!"

"Wait! Do what you want to Kudo, but don't tell Ran."

"Why not?"

"Well, how would you feel if I told you I saw Makoto with someone else?"

"Awful, but…"

"Ran's been through enough as it is. I don't want to be the one to tell her this. It would kill her."

"True...but we can't just keep this quiet."

The question: _What do we do?_ rattled in the minds of both young women so loudly that they didn't hear their friend approach.

"Hi!" They jumped guiltily at the sound of Ran's voice. "Is...something wrong?"

"NO!" They said together. Now Ran, being the daughter of a detective, though admittedly he was not a very talented one, knew right off the bat that they were lying. And after what was going on with Shinichi, she hated lying. But she also trusted her friends, like she trusted Shinichi, and didn't press the point. The fact that they were keeping secrets from her still hurt. Just like it had with Shinichi.

So she just played dumb and turned away.

"That was close." Sonoko whispered to Kazuha once their beloved friend walked away.

"Yeah. I don't know what Ran would think if she saw them…Oh, no!"

"What? What is it?"

"They must be coming to the reception. Oh, god, I can't imagine what Ran will think."

"We should ask Professor to be sure, though."

"Be sure of what?" Heiji really did have miserable timing, Kazuha thought as he stuck his head between theirs.

"Well…"

"It wouldn't happen to have anything to do with that girl he's with, would it?"

"How..?"

"I ain't stupid, Kazuha. Besides, I just saw them in the lobby when I went to the bathroom ten minutes ago. They were laughing their heads off. Knocked my socks off."

"You're his friend. Do you know who she is?"

"Nope. I haven't heard from Kudo in almost a month. As far I know, he's smitten with Ran, but…"

The trio turned nervously to check the door to the lobby, then to see that Ran was preoccupied.

"Look, I know Kudo better than you two do, and I'm pretty sure he must have a reason for this."

"Heiji! We caught him with another woman, and you're thinking about his excuse?"

"Never mind. We'll conduct our own investigation, brownie boy."

"You do that." Heiji muttered as he walked away. Deep down, though, as much as he trusted Kudo, he had to wonder just who that woman with the curly black hair was.

_Yes, I know a cougar is not a woman that young, but Kazuha though it, not me, so blame her! Oh, and the review button's right there…go on, click it, you know you want to…_


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey, all! Chapter 3 is up! Thanks a ton to the few of you who reviewed! As for the rest of you…(Glares)_

_Yeah, yeah, I don't own Detective Conan. Do I look like Gosho Aoyama?_

Sonoko crept into the lobby, carefully avoiding being seen. Kazuha was staying behind to distract Ran.

As she approached the deceitful detective and his companion, she caught little bits of their conversation.

"Holy crap, this place is huge…" The cougar was saying.

"Well, not everyone's going to get married in a broom closet, you know."

"Be quiet. I like broom closets, thank you very much." The woman was talking very quickly, and it took Sonoko a minute to figure out what she had said.

They were talking about marriage. Sonoko really wanted to kill Kudo at that moment. Upon closer inspection, she realized the cougar was wearing a ring on her left ring finger. Oh, god… Sonoko thought she was going to be sick.

Shinichi looked around the reception hall, awed by the sheer size of the place.

"Okay, so according to the invites, they're in room 3…" His friend muttered. "Now where the hell is room 3?"

Shinichi pointed to a door right in front of them labeled 3. He chuckled under his breath. Christie was so hopeless with directions. Then he noticed a figure hiding behind a pillar by the door. Judging from the bleached hair, it was Suzuki. But what was she doing there? And why was she glaring at him?

"Ford? Earth paging Ford, do you read me?" Christie waved her left hand in front of his face, light glinting off her diamond engagement ring nearly blinding him.

Ford. That was what she called him. It had been almost a month since he had heard Shinichi or Kudo. He was looking forward to having a friend call him that again. Especially if that friend was Ran. He blushed slightly, then turned back to Christie. Come to think of it, he didn't know her real name either. Not that that bothered him. He had been living in lies so long, they had become natural to him.

"I'm fine. Just thought I saw someone I knew."

"Oh! Was it Angel?"

"Nope."

Sonoko was frozen. Her feet wouldn't move. Kudo had just looked straight at her, and was now probably telling his pretty little date all about her. Oh, Crap! He was waving to her!

"Hey! Suzuki!" Sonoko grit her teeth and came out from behind the pillar. Kazuha wasn't kidding, she realized. The cougar was beautiful.

"Hi!" The woman said. "I'm Takahama Yuri, it's so nice to meet you!" Sonoko was slightly off-put. She hadn't expected her to be so friendly.

"Suzuki Sonoko. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." She lied through her teeth. "How long have you and Kudo known each other?"

"Kudo?...Oh, Ford! About a month."

"Ford…?"

"Inside joke." Yuri winked. "So, is this the right place? I'm so terrible with directions."

"Yeah…"

"Oh, good! C'mon, Ford, let's go! I wanna meet Angel!"

Before Sonoko realized what had happened, Yuri had dragged Kudo past her and into the reception room.

"Oh, shit…"

"Yuri? Is that really your name?"

"Yes. Now shut up. So, Kudo, is it?"

"Yup. Kudo Shinichi."

"Really? I must say, I didn't imagine you as a Shinichi."

Didn't picture you as a Yuri."

"Touche. So how do you know that girl?"

"She's Angel's best friend."

"Hm. So, any particular reason she seems like she hates me?"

"I have no idea."

Kazuha was right in the middle of a conversation with Ran when her cell phone chimed, alerting her to a text.

"Just a sec, Ran." She said as she flipped open her phone to read the message. It read, quite simply: Code red. Sonoko had sent it. "What the hell…"

Ran leaned over her shoulder in an attempt to read it, but Kazuha pulled it out of her reach.

"What's that?" She asked.

"I'm not really sure…"

"Huh?" Ran raised her eyebrow. Behind them, the door leading into the lobby opened. Kazuha realized about a second too late what that meant.

"Hey, Professor!"

"Oh, Shinichi, my boy! What a surprise!" The glass fell form Ran's hand as Agasa replied to his younger friend's greeting. Kazuha groaned under her breath in dismay.

Kudo the Jerk was back.

_Look at the pocket watch…you're getting sleepy…very sleepy…now, go review!_


	4. Chapter 4

_Yay! Chapter 4! Thanks SOOO much for all the reviews! They make my day, they really do! _

_I don't own Detective Conan. As a matter of fact, I own absolutely nothing._

Ran's world seemed to have stopped. One minute she was talking to Kazuha, and the next thing she knew, Shinichi was back. It was really so like him, you know, to show up at the most random of times. She felt a tear forming in the corner of her eye, but she ignored it.

"Shinichi…?" The young man who was talking to Professor Agasa started, and turned to look at her with the first true smile Ran could remember seeing on his face.

"Ran!" Shinichi turned from the groom, carefully making his way through the crowd to join her. Ran realized that Kazuha was very obviously avoiding her eyes, but she could tell her friend was disgusted by something.

"Ford? Hey, wait up!" Kazuha's knuckles grew white. Ran shifted her gaze back to her childhood friend, confused by Kazuha's reaction. That was when she saw the very pretty woman behind Shinichi, following him through the mob of people. She caught up with him quickly, and grabbed his arm as if to steady herself. Ran's stomach knotted when she realized how familiar both parties seemed with the gesture. Shinichi, however, decided to ignore his companion.

"Ran!" He said again, like he was trying to convince himself it was really her. Ironic, really, considering the fact that Ran was the one would couldn't believe it was him. Ran stole a glance at his friend, who was looking slowly from herself to Shinichi. Then her eyes widened, and she leaned in to whisper something into Shinichi's ear. Ran felt as if her heart had shattered. Shinichi blushed slightly and nodded, and Ran felt the tears rush to her eyes again. No...she couldn't cry...not in front of Shinichi...not in front of this woman…

"Oh, you must be Angel!" Ran looked up. The woman was smiling at her, and extended her hand. "I'm Takahama Yuri, a neurologist. I've hear so much about you!"

"Angel…?"

"Yup, that's what Ford calls you, at least."

"He…"

"Yeah, he talks about you. The trick is getting him to shut up."

Ran looked from Kazuha to Yuri to Shinichi and back again. Shinichi had talked about her to his girlfriend. She didn't even want to think about what he had said. She even had her own little nickname for him. Ford. What kind of pet name is that?

Yuri was about to introduce herself to Kazuha when her phone rang.

"Christie here. Oh, Risu! Yeah, we made it. This place is huge. Oh, you wouldn't believe…" She walked away from the group to continue her conversation in peace.

Ran swallowed and looked away from Shinichi. She couldn't breathe in here. Not next to the love of her life laughing with some other woman. She had to get out.

"Ran? Are you okay?" Shinichi put his hand against her forehead, checking for fever.

"Yeah. I just need some air." She walked away, heading to the back door, which lead to the gardens. He hesitated only a split second before following her. Yuri shot him a look before he left, and he replied with an irritated, "I know, I know!"

Sonoko had joined Kazuha by now, and she knew Heiji was watching out of the corner of his eye. Yuri clicked her phone shut and headed to the doors. Sonoko stepped in her path.

"Just a second, Miss 'Christie'. I wanna ask you a few questions about your relationship with 'Ford'. As an old friend of 'Angel's.'"

"Sure thing! Just gimme a minute, okay?" She said over her shoulder as she pulled open the lobby door, holding it for a young man pushing a wheelchair. He greeted her with a smile, and she kissed him lightly on the cheek.

Sonoko was shocked. Just how loose was this lady? But then the young woman in the wheelchair spoke up.

"Oh, Hattori. It's been a while. How have you been?" Asked Haibara Ai.

_Ah, suspense. _

_Okay, so you should know how this works by now. You press that little button that says "Review", and everybody's happy. So do it!_


	5. Chapter 5

_Wow! I got a lot of reviews! Thanks so much, everybody! _

_If I owned Detective Conan, it would have ended about 600 chapters ago._

_

* * *

_

Professor Agasa nearly choked on his champagne when he heard that voice.

"Ai!"

"Oh, Professor!"

"What on earth..." He muttered as he examined the young woman. Woman, not girl. So she had taken the antidote as well. But that wasn't what got his attention.

She was in a wheelchair, and her hands were gently crossed in her lap. Yet, she looked happy. No one, save her late sister perhaps, had seen that look on her face before. It was a shame Ran missed it. Where was she, anyways?

Haibara laughed. Another sign of the apocalypse. "It's Shiho now, Professor. Miyano Shiho."

"Really?" Yuri had taken the wheelchair from the man who had been pushing it. "I never imagined you as a Shiho, Hai. Well, I guess today's just full of surprises, huh, Risu?"

The man beside her smiled. He looked exhausted as he brushed a lock of his long brown hair out of his pale eyes. Obviously a foreigner.

"Hello" He said, grinning at the Professor and Heiji. "Are you Hai's friends?"

"Yeah" Agasa replied, while secretly wishing that Shiho had more people she could call by that title. Friends. But she seemed pretty close to these people. Who were they, anyway? And how did they know Shinichi and Shiho?

He was just about to voice his questions when he saw Ran running by outside the window, crying. She was followed by Shinichi, who was chasing after her at top speed.

"Damn." Yuri swore as she noticed them. She ran over to the window, screaming, "Ford! Stop running like a crazy person, or you'll kill yourself! You just got out of the hospital for pity's sake!"

* * *

Ran dashed to a secluded corner of the garden, unable to stop the tears from erupting from her eyes. Shinichi had found someone else. It shouldn't really be a surprise, she thought, considering how long he'd been away and how she had never worked up the courage to tell him how she felt. But, when he'd told her at the school play that he wanted to talk to her in private...and then he'd gone ahead and asked her to that fancy restaurant...she'd hoped that she had a chance. More tears broke through the floodgates of her eyelashes.

"Ran!" She felt a warm hand on her shoulder, attempting to comfort her. She stood very quickly, shaking the hand off.

"Ran, listen…"

"No, Shinichi, you listen!" She screamed, and spun around to face him. He was panting very hard, as if he had just run a very long way, even though the reception hall was only five minutes away.

"You disappear for seven months, you miss Professor Agasa's wedding, you ignore me for a month, you never tell me what's going on, and then you turn up here with some random girl on your arm who knows exactly what's happening and…"

"Ran, slow down. I have a perfectly good reason for everything that's happened these past few months…"

"I DON'T WANNA HEAR YOUR EXCUSES!" Ran screamed before turning on her heel and dashing off.

"Hey!" Shinichi, not even remembering his promise to Yuri, ran after her.

* * *

"What do you mean, he just got out of the hospital?" Heiji asked, not even bothering to pretend he wasn't eavesdropping anymore.

"What happened to my Shin?" Yukiko asked, having just decided to randomly pop up. (A/N: She does that a lot, doesn't she?)

Yuri and the foreigner exchanged confused looks.

"You mean he hasn't told you what happened?"

"No." Everyone replied in sync.

"Well, Risuke, my fiance," she gestured to the foreign man, "is his doctor. I'm officially in charge of Shiho, but we switched today because Ford wanted to leave early."

"Doctor?"

"What happened?"

"Fiance?" (that was Sonoko)

"Will someone please tell me what happened to my Shin?"

* * *

_And just when you thought it could get any more confusing..._

_Only one chapter left after this! It should be up in a week or so. _

_Alright, you know the drill. Review!_


	6. Chapter 6

_Last chapter! I wanna thank everybody who's read and/or reviewed this, and special thanks to YouthfulLily and alkyone, who reviewed basically every chapter. _

_I own way too much manga, an ipod, and a giant stuffed panda, and that's about it. Note how Detective Conan wasn't on that pathetically short list. _

* * *

Meanwhile, Shinichi was still chasing after Ran.

"Go away, Kudo Shinichi!" She cried.

"Not until you let me explain!" He replied as they ran past the window of the reception hall. Ran could hear Yuri shouting at Shinichi, which only encouraged her to run harder.

"Well," Shinichi panted, "For starters, I missed Agasa's wedding because I was busy being in a COMA!"

Ran stopped dead. Shinichi crashed into her from behind, leaning against her for support and breathing hard. She slowly moved to face him, careful not to throw him off balance.

"A...coma…?" she murmured. He nodded and sunk to the ground, gesturing for her to follow him.

"There's something I REALLY need to tell you…" Ran tilted her head, silently begging him to continue.

"I...I really am Edogawa Conan." He took a deep breath, deciding it would be best to get the whole story out in the open before she had time to kill him. He could have sworn her heard her mutter, "I knew it," though.

As he told his tale about the Black Organization, he watched as Ran's tears of anger subsided to be replaced by tears of genuine pain. He could tell she wasn't crying of her own suffering, but for his. That's just the kind of person Ran was.

"So, when Haibara finally found the antidote, which is permanent, thank god, we both took it, but then we both fell into a coma. When we woke up, we were suffering from almost complete motor paralysis. Frankly, though, we're lucky to be alive." Ran tentatively reached out and laced her fingers, through his own. She was shaking slightly.

"So...how does Miss Yuri tie into this? What's Ford?"

"Christie is a paralysis physician. She and her fiance are my and Haibara's doctors. She came with me today because I'm not completely well yet. My leg still freezes up on occasion. Like now, for instance." He tugged on his right leg in an attempt to move it.

"Ford was my codename. Everyone at the hospital unit where I was being kept was somehow involved with the men in black, and so code names are mandatory. 'Ford' comes from Shelling Ford, the prototype name for Sherlock Holmes. The poison I was fed," Shinichi paused when Ran's finger's tightened around his, "was also called prototype detective. Christie, Yuri's name, came from Agatha Christie, her favorite author. Hai means 'gray' in Japanese (A/N: I think…), and since Haibara was caught between black and white, Yuri started calling her Hai. Get it?"

Ran was quiet, which greatly unsettled Shinichi. For all he knew, she could be debating over whether or not to kill him. But instead, she just leaned against him, as if she was very tired.

"...You're not angry?"

"Sort of. I'll yell at you later. As of now I think you've been through enough."

Shinichi gazed down at this beautiful angel who sat beside him. He decided that he might as well get all the confessions in the open at the same time.

"Ran?"

"Hm?"

"You remember the school play? And how I told you I had something important to say?"

Ran sat up and looked at him, intent on his every word.

"Um...okay, here goes: Iloveyou!"

"Pardon?"

"I-love-you." Ran's jaw dropped. She leaned closer to Shinichi, blushing furiously.

"Really? You're not just saying that?"

"Why on earth would I 'just say that'? Ran, I've been in love with you since we were 13."

Ran didn't think about what she did next. She just leaned in and kissed him, gently. His eyes widened, and he responded to her lips, running his fingers through her beautiful hair.

* * *

Meanwhile, Yuri, Risuke, and Shiho had just finished making a very similar speech, minus the confessions of love, to the others. Heiji had to do some major explaining to Kazuha and Sonoko, who were pretty much the only people who didn't know what was going on. The kids had long since abandoned attempting to keep track of the adults' conversation, and had gone off to look for buried treasure.

"...yeah." Risuke finished.

"So, why's Kudo been out of touch for a month?" Heiji asked.

"We were concentrating on re-establishing our motor neuron functions. They didn't what us to be distracted." Shiho replied.

"Still, I didn't know a person could recover from complete paralysis in a month." Yukiko said.

"Well, generally speaking they can't," Yuri gestured to Shiho, who lifted her left hand. She had explained earlier that it was the only part of her body she could move, aside from her head and neck.

"But," Shiho murmured, "It think it was because he had something to recover _for_." The others followed her gaze out the window to Ran and Shinichi. They had her arms around each other, of the sake of Shinichi's support. Both of them looked blissful in each other's company.

"Sweetie, could you get his crutches?" Yuri asked Risuke. He nodded, and then smiled slyly.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Nothing really...I was just wondering what Ford thought of double weddings."

* * *

_That's it, folks! If I could write romance or smut, it would be longer. But I can't. :( Ah, well. If anybody's still confused, please review and tell me so. _

_Even if you're not confused, you should still review!_


End file.
